Seventh Sense and the EIC Accelerator: Touch Instead of Sight

Seventh Sense wants blind people to feel their surroundings instead of hearing about them. The company, registered in Tallinn in 2015 and trading as 7Sense, built a headband with 3D and thermal cameras whose images are turned into patterns of pressure on the forehead, so that the wearer feels the shape and distance of objects around them. It calls the product SuperBrain.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,235,927 towards a €3.19 million project that ran from October 2022 to January 2025. According to the CORDIS report, the company completed CE marking as a Class I medical device and ISO 13485 compliance, and ran "over 400 user trials in multiple countries". Estonian register data summarised by Inforegister show sales of €93,430 in 2025 and four employees in 2026.

Where Seventh Sense Stands Today

The company's website has a shop link for SuperBrain and an investor page that lists an Estonian Business and Innovation Agency grant of €34,562.50 for developing a second-generation device. No price, user numbers or investment round are published. In July 2024 Invest in Estonia reported that the company was targeting Spain, England, Germany and Finland and that Deutsche Telekom and Nvidia had shown interest; its sales director Madis Päev said "only we offer a solution that actually works".

The Technology: Feeling Space on the Forehead

The CORDIS report describes a headband combining 3D sensing, thermal imaging and AI with a tactile display. Algorithms turn depth data into points of pressure, which the company calls "phyxels", and heat into thermal points, "thexels", so that the wearer can sense "shape, motion, distance, and temperature". The report calls it "the world's first wearable system that provides blind and visually impaired users with a real-time 'remote sense of touch'". Its effectiveness data from the user trials have not been published.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The project promised "independent mobility to the blind and visually impaired". It took the device from technology readiness level 6 to what the report calls market readiness, with CE marking, a quality system and trials in rehabilitation centres and blind associations. The report's next steps are cost reduction for mass manufacturing, FDA approval, patents and distribution partners.

1. Market-ready deviceDeliveredCE-marked, Class I.
2. User validationDelivered400+ trials, per CORDIS.
3. Published outcome dataNot shownNo trial results public.
4. Commercial uptakeSmall€93K sales in 2025.

What Has Happened Since the Award

Quarterly tax data show the team at four in early 2024, up to eight in the first quarter of 2025, as the project ended, and back to four in 2026. Labour taxes paid fell to €9,650 in the second quarter of 2026.

The Money

The annual reports show sales revenue of €21,254 in 2023, €23,827 in 2024 and €93,430 in 2025. Other operating income, mainly grants, was €1.55 million in 2024, which produced an accounting profit of €1.08 million that year; the 2025 profit was €320,289. Equity was €1.44 million at the end of 2025. No private funding round has been announced.

Why Europe Should Care

The EIC paid most of the cost of taking a new kind of assistive device through certification in Europe. That part worked. Whether blind people can get it depends on sales, distribution and reimbursement, and the public record shows very little of any of them.

The Verdict

Seventh Sense has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements, Estonian register data and EU project data, linked throughout.